I used them for about a year. Some of my shipments took a couple of weeks or more to get to California. I only used them for small electronics. Shipping is just way to expensive to justify buying anything else in their catalog. I tried to smarten up once and shop out of their USA warehouse figuring that I would pay less shipping and cut down on shipping time. I purchased an ember2 airplane. It arrived within a week. I took it out of the box, linked it to my transmitter, and the rudder channel was not working. There was a problem with the receiver module. I got on their online help chat and was told that they don't do warranties or returns from the US warehouse and that I had to send the whole unit (out of my pocket) all the way back to china. Cost is like 30 something dollars. I called Horizon Hobby to see if I can get it fixed on a warranty. They told me they couldn't because Hobby King is an unauthorized dealer. I was not going to spend $40 to ship a $50 plane back to China and wait another 2 to 4 weeks to get an ember2 back and take the chance that if something was every to go wrong with the next one, I would have to do the whole thing all over again. I went to my local hobby shop and bought a new receiver for $50 and the ember is working fine. It would have made more sense for Hobby King to allow me to just send the bad receiver back in a small tiny economical package or even allow me to send it to the USA wharehouse and save everyone a lot of time and money. I haven't bought anything from Hobby King ever since. Too many risks.

I have used HobbyKing for some time now, with around 80 orders and have always been very satisfied with the service I have gotten.Biggest problem is out of stock goods, but when you see the volume of sales they have it does become understandable.Am somewhat concerned with the new import restrictions for anything over $50 though.Also of concern is freighting Lipos. HobbyKing have stated they have found away around this, but time will tell as I know of one person that has been waiting for 3 weeks for delivery of some goods that includes one Lipo pack

This is what I'm worried about. Are we going to be charged Duty and GST on goods over $50?This is on the NZ Customs website and where it leads, who knows?

From 1 July 2010, the New Zealand Customs Service will begin applying an import transaction fee (ITF) of $24.75 ($22 plus GST) to a range of import consignments which were previously exempt from the fee.

In addition to the current range of clearances, the ITF will from 1 July 2010 be charged on:

* private import consignments on which duty and GST of more than the $50 de minimis is payable * unaccompanied passengers’ baggage and personal effects where these exceed $400 in value * “voluntary” import entries for consignments valued at below the de minimis * Temporary Import Entries.

A MAF Biosecurity system entry levy (BSEL) of $12.50 (including GST) will also be charged whenever an ITF is applied.

These import transaction fees are applied to cover the time and costs associated with processing imports and are used to fund border risk management activities.

Daedalus wrote:This is what I'm worried about. Are we going to be charged Duty and GST on goods over $50?This is on the NZ Customs website and where it leads, who knows?

Don't worry Wayne, the threshold for applying GST (and the new fees) is whenever the GST that would be charged comes to $50 or more.

This used to mean that when the landed value was NZ$400 or more (including freight).

Once GST is hiked to 15% the threshold will drop to NZ$383 (including freight).

So, providing the value of your package remains under $380, nothing will change. What's more, since the NZ dollar seems to be getting stronger by the day, NZ$380 today actually buys more than NZ$400 did a couple of months ago.